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a. Found in SE Wisconsin, on a dead tree. b. Gills are attached and yellowc. Stem is almost an inch long, and the caps are no more than an inch in diameter.d. The stem is orange, and has darkened since it was picked. The stem is solid and fibrous.e. Cap is brown and smooth, and wavy.f. Mushroom wouldn't drop spores for print.g. stems bruised dark orangeh. Mushroom smells weakly mushroomy

To get a spore print it often helps to put it on a piece of paper and leave it overnight with a bowl or cup over the top of it to help keep the humidity up.

Sometimes you can figure out spore print color in a cluster of mushrooms like this by looking under one cap at the top of another cap. There will sometimes be a spore print from one mushroom on the other.

What kind of tree (pine or deciduous) was it on. The exact species would be nice, but you should note if it's a pine or not.

Try tasting a tiny piece of one of the caps. Break off a small piece, put it in your mouth, chew a little, then spit it out. Let us know what it tastes like - warning: it might be bitter and nasty tasting.

I didn't get a chance to get a spore print before the caps shriveled up and dried out. They were growing on a decidious tree, species unknown. I hope you can still ID it; but if not, no worries, I'll just go hunting again!

Thanks for the compliment on the picture, I just put the mushroom on the scanner and scanned it! (twice)

OK, this is very much a guess, but those look like Flammulina velutipes. Your specimens are shorter, darker, and thicker than the ones I usually see, but the link here is to Tom Volk's page - he's in Wisconsin. This basically means that I'm guessing you would have gotten a white spore print from them. I also partially based the guess on the date - it's still a bit early in Wisconsin, and this is one of the few species that will fruit this early - Dr. Volk has found them there in February.

In the future, you need to remember to get a spore print (unless you can know the spore print color another way) right away when you collect. Spore print color is one of the very most important things used for identification, and, with many mushrooms, we'll never figure out what they are without one.